Telugu at UC, Berkeley Initiative at Folsom today

As they say, if Mohammad doesn't come to prophet, then prophet goes to Mohammad. For those of who missed the July 16th meeting at Milpitas Library, here is the chance to hear Dr. Vemuri Rao, Professor, UC Davis.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Vishakhapatnam: 'Bommalata' to be staged on August 1

VISAKHAPATNAM : The popular stage play బొమ్మలాట (Bommalata) which had drawn overwhelming audiences to the stage since its launch in 1988, is back with a bang after a long gap.

The play, directed by noted actor and director L. Satyanand and written by Nadiminti Narasinga Rao, was first staged in Visakhapatnam in 1988 and bagged the best stage play award in the festival held by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in Calicut.

It was the only Telugu play selected for the national festival held by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, in 1989.

It was staged continuously for 102 days from 15 May 1992 in Visakhapatnam.

Hyderabad, July 28: Come July 31 and Prasar Bharati will be airing Telugu mythologies and folk arts as part of a special drive to bring forth the classics to the younger generation.Outstanding works of noted Telugu writers like Koduru Kousalyadevi, Baliwada Kanta Rao, Vasireddy Sitadevi and V.S. Rama Devi have been filmed by Prasar Bharati.

Talking to the mediapersons, Doordarshan’s deputy director-general Ashok Jailkhani said, “To be frank, the quality of television serials has gone down drastically in all the private channels and it is our moral responsibility to bring out those forgotten stories.” He also said that classics in other regions too will be taken up.

“Eminent people such as Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Girish Karnad and Kalpana Lazmi will be taking up stories for various regions,” Mr Jailkhani said. Stating the Indian classics were already being aired on DD-1’s Katha Sarita from May 14, 2006, he said that an episode on Satavahanas, Ikshvakus, Vishnukundis, Kakatiyas and on Buddha will be aired. Apart from this, as many as nine telefilms in Telugu from various genres have also been filmed which will be aired, Jailkhani said.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

కిట్టు

Prasad Bhosekar

For the first time in the history of 75-year-old Telugu film industry, a 2D animation film - Kittu has been made and released. Kittu is the story of a small monkey, who is naughty, clever, commits mistakes and learns from them. It took nearly three years for its makers to make this animation film.

In a first experiment of its kind in 75-yr-old Telugu film industry, a 2D animation film called Kittu has been made and released in theatres. Never before in the Telugu film industry anything of this sort has been attempted, as this industry is mainly a hero-dominated one. Kittu is produced by Bhargav Pictures which is into animation business, making short films and documentaries, mainly to depict Indian culture.

Bhargav, the producer of Kittu explained, ``Animation is accepted by all. Everyone, right from children to men and women, all of them have some childishness in them.''

Some big name like editor Sreekar Prasad and music director Raj worked on this film, and it was the first directorial venture for B.Satya.

B.Satya, the director of the film said ``The character of Kittu is naughty, clever and very comic in nature. He makes audiences laugh and also think..''

Depending on the success of Kittu in Telugu, the producer of this film is planning to dub this film in other languages soon.

TIRUPATI: Music and dance loving denizens of the temple city are in for a bonanza as the 64th annual Festival of Music and Dance being organised by the Sri Thyagaraja Festival Committee is set to get under way here on July 30.

The fete will be inaugurated by Princess of Travancore Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmibai while N. Murali, Managing Director of The Hindu , who is president of the Music Academy, Chennai, will preside.Thirty-two concerts have been planned for the 10-day fete involving more than 60 artistes drawn from southern States and West Bengal. The festival is being co-sponsored by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.

According to M. Krishnaswamy, chairman of the festival committee, meticulous care has been taken in the selection of programmes and artistes so that it will be a good blend of all forms of music and artistes of all ages.

Besides vocal concerts, there will be veena, solo violin, flute, mandolin, sitar and nadaswaram concerts, not to mention Harikatha. The concert will begin with a `Mohiniattam' dance performance by Gopila Varma.

Some of the leading artistes who will perform during the festival are: T.N. Krishnan and N. Ramani — violin and flute maestros, `Mandolin' Srinivas, Sudha Raghunathan, Kadiri Gopalnath, Bombay and Priya Sisters, Hyderabad Brothers and T.T. Seetha.

Lacking encouragement

Mr. Krishnaswamy expresses anguish that for all the pains that the committee has been taking every year to get leading artistes for the festival, the response from the public could have been a little more forthcoming. He says that it is his wish to develop Tirupati Thyagaraja Trust on the lines of the Madras Music Academy (MMA). He hopes that the TTD fulfils its commitment to help the trust. The trust will confer `Sapthagiri Sangeetha Vidwanmani' title on Carnatic singer T.T. Seetha at a special meet on August 6.

Accompanied by K.V. Ranganathan (secretary) and V.S. Narasimhachary (treasurer), Mr. Krishnaswamy released the programme sheets of the festival on Thursday.

Rajahmundry: 'Bapu Bommala Koluvu' begins

Rajahmundry: `Impressions' of Viajayawada is going to organise a three-day Bapu art exhibition-cum-sale from Friday. MLA Rowthu Suryaprakasha Rao will inaugurate it at Vikram Hall.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, M. Rajaram of the organisation said that they were conducting the exhibition in the name of `Bapu Bommala Koluvu' in all major towns in the State. They were also held in the U.S. and Singapore. Mr. Rajaram said that more than 100 works of Bapu would be on display. Books on Ramayana and Mahabharata would also be put up.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Verdict delivered in Telugu

NIZAMABAD: Assistant Sessions Judge Mangari Rajender, who established a record for himself in the judicial history of the State by delivering the first judgment (civil case) in Telugu on July 19, achieved another record by giving another decision in Telugu (criminal case) here on Monday.

This is the first judgment in Telugu in a criminal case in the entire State. He wrote the whole 12-page judgment in Telugu. Thus, he achieved the record of being the first judge to deliver judgments for both a criminal and a civil case in Telugu.

Mr. Rajender, who is familiar to Telugu literary world with pen name `Jimbo,' has written several stories and books in the mother tongue.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Official letters must be in Telugu

Warangal, July 22: The Official Language Commission on Saturday directed the officials to return the official letters written in English.

Reviewing the implementation of Telugu in four districts — Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, and Khammam — at a regional level review meet here, the commission chief A.B.K. Prasad said that it should be mandatory to use Telugu in all official correspondence.

“All the letters that come in English should be promptly sent back,” he added. He expressed dissatisfaction over the police department, which is still registering cases in English, and resulting in confusion among the victims. The education department has also got a specific directive not to permit more English medium schools and in every school, Telugu should be one of the subjects.

Responding to a query, Mr Prasad said that the commission had already taken up with the private television channels to improve language of their anchors and instruct them not to speak broken Telugu wilfully. The commission chief stated that the budget proposals in the Assembly would be introduced in Telugu so as to promote the use of Telugu in the legislative house.

Giving details about the implementation Telugu, he said that all the names in the attendance register should be written in Telugu and all the internal records should also be maintained in the official language. The veteran journalist stated that it was high time that there should be all-round awareness on the need to use mother tongue.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Telugu to be taught in USA

Hyderabad : �Latin of the East�, Telugu, is finally spreading to West. In a significant development for the language, the prestigious University of Berkeley in California, USA has come forward to establish a new department for Telugu language with an intention to start Telugu as a subject for this fall semester.

University of Wisconsin already has a Telugu department.The varsity has applied for necessary resources to establish this new department. Fund raising has been started and around $15,000 has been collected so far.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

The 'Telugu' in TIME magazine's list of Top 100 Influential People

The poverty in India is disconcerting," says విక్రం బయన ఆకుల (Vikram Bayana Akula). "I just thought I must do something." That's how this story began in the interiors of arid Andhra Pradesh. Akula, who grew up in Schenectady, upstate New York (where father A.V. Krishna is a surgeon), encountered poverty first hand earlier while visiting relatives in Medhak. "It's a tragedy that we NRIs who can do a lot, are not doing enough. We have the skills to solve the problems," he says.

The year that Akula spent in Zaheerabad transformed him forever. For the past 12 years, he's worked tirelessly to help the impoverished people of this Deccan region. Inspired by Mohammad Yunus' micro-credit Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, he started the Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS) in 1998 in Medhak district. He raised $52,000 from individual contributors in the US with, not surprisingly, 50 per cent of the money coming from NRI doctors. "The idea is to put private sector initiative into alleviating poverty. I don't want to depend on grants or government money."

Telugu lad in 'Code's visual effects' team

HYDERABAD: When the controversial film The Da Vinci Code will be released in the city on Friday, Hyderabadis will have a chance to see the visual effects in the film created by city lad మేదారం నవీన్‌ కుమార్ (Medaram Naveen Kumar).

This 26-year-old was among the team at post-production firm The Moving Picture Company, London, that created the visual effects for 18 shots of around four minutes each in the film.

"One of the most challenging scenes in the film was the visual effects for bombing a castle. It was a flashback scene and was a huge shot with horses and soldiers," Naveen said on Wednesday speaking to multimedia students here on Wednesday.

Not only this, Naveen has under his cap the credits for being a part of the team which developed visual effects for blockbuster films like X-Men 3 and Posiedon too.

Naveen, who is on a vacation to the city, spoke to the students about his experiences while working on films. "The animation and graphics industry in India is picking up, especially with films like Godavari and Pokiri, that have used a lot visual effects and animation.

This is a good start for the Telugu industry," he said. With no dearth of talent and software here, he said visual effects in Indian films only lack the finish for which he blames the producers who give the animators tight deadlines leaving them no time to do a good job.

"With a lot of work being outsourced by the US and the UK, India has a bright future in this industry. And in the next five years, I foresee a two-fold increase in the demand for visual effects compositors and designers. The time is ripe to plunge into the industry, provided one has creativity," said Naveen.

Born in Nizamabad, Naveen studied fine arts at JNTU, Hyderabad, and completed his masters degree in digital effects from the UK.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Survey reveals rich heritage of Telugu

ANCIENT TREASURE: A rare collection of manuscripts in Telugu recovered from Rajahmundry

HYDERABAD: In a survey conducted last February under the National Manuscripts Mission, the Government recovered 262,439 ancient and recent manuscripts written on palm leaves, copper plates and hand-made paper.

A majority of them are in Telugu script and are 300 to 400 years old, indicating the rich heritage of the language. Some are in Persian, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu. The manuscripts, passed on from generation to generation, have been secured from individual families who preserved them all these years and responded to the notice issued by the Government as part of the mission.

Two books in leaves -- భీష్మ పర్వం (Bhisma Parvam) of తిక్కన్న భారతం (Tikkana Bharatam) and పోతన భగవతం (Pothana Bhagavatham) -- found with two families in Nellore and Warangal, and a `parmana' issued by Chatrapathi Shivaji turned out to be major attractions. The families had kept them in mandirs in the house and worshipped them for years. Enumerators found that some families, unable to preserve such treasures, reluctantly immersed them in tanks.

Among the rare finds are styluses used for engraving letters on the leaf and scrolls.

Other important finds include a manuscript in Devanagari script from Kandakurthi in Nizamabad district, 60 pieces from Hindupur, Dwipada and Gond Bharatam in Gond script from Gumjala in Adilabad distict.

Nizamabad topped the districts with 73,056 manuscripts and Chittoor ranked second with 69,580.

Displaying some of the manuscripts at a press conference on Tuesday, Archaeology and Archives Minister N. Rajyalakshmi and Director of Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute Jayadhir Tirumala Rao said some manuscripts could not be immediately acquired.

Another survey

So, another survey would be taken up shortly to know the willingness of the families to part with these pieces of `immeasurable value' to the State's history.

An ambitious plan has been drawn up by the institute to preserve the finds for posterity through digitisation and other means after ascertaining their antiquity.

Chittoor Nagaiah statue to be installed in Tirupati

TIRUPATI: A life-size statue of well-known theatre and film actor Chittoor V. Nagaiah will soon dot a prominent junction in Tirupati.

When రంగస్థల కలాకారుల ఐక్య వేదిక (Rangasthala Kalakarula Aikya Vedika), a forum of theatre artistes, came up with the proposal for the statue, local MLA M. Venkataramana, himself an actor, gave Rs.25,000 from his side. Handing over the cheque to Vedika's vice-president M. Kodandapani Reddy and general secretary K. N. Natarajan here on Monday, he recalled Nagaiah's contribution in the production of several mythological films.

Telugu Studies Initiative at University of California, Berkeley

There is going to be a Town Hall meeting at the Milpitas Public Library on 16th July, Sunday from 3 to 5 PM. At this meeting you will learn about the proposed idea to start offering Telugu courses at the University of California at Berkeley. At this meeting you will have a chance to meet most of the people working behind the scenes to kick start this program. Please bring your friends with you. Please share this announcement with at least a dozen of your friends inside and outside California!

The purpose of this meeting is to formally announce the program, recruit volunteers and organize ourselves into an effective volunteer force.

Conference of Telugu Writers at Vijayawada, Oct 27-29

Vijayawada: The Krishna District Writers' Association will organise a conference of Telugu writers, commemorating the golden jubilee celebrations of Andhra Pradesh formation, from October 27 to 29 at Vijayawada. For details contact 9985252616, 9440172642.

Language panel sore with ISRO

Says it rarely mentions that the centre is in Nellore district ISRO has been mentioning Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, as being 80 km north of Chennai. But it has rarely mentioned that its main satellite launch centre is in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, says panel chief A.B.K. Prasad

NELLORE: The Andhra Pradesh Official Language Commission has taken exception to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for not mentioning both Nellore and Andhra Pradesh while introducing its satellite launch centre at Sriharikota.

The organisation has always been mentioning Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota as being 80 km north of Chennai. But the ISRO has rarely mentioned that its main satellite launch centre is in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

"Though this kind of introductory style appears inconsequential to many people working in the ISRO, this has let down the sentiments of the people of Nellore district on many fronts," Official Language Commission Chairman A.B.K. Prasad told reporters on Friday.

To petition ISRO chief

Against this backdrop, the Commission would take up the matter with ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair. "The commission is not against mentioning Chennai's name while introducing Sriharikota. But it wants that the ISRO mention that Sriharikota is in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh as it could retain the sense of belongingness among locals," he said.

Citing an example, he said that ISRO had mentioned either in its print version given to the media or on its website that it would launch INSAT-4C, India's latest communication satellite from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota about 80 km north of Chennai. "But there is no mention that it is in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh," he lamented.

Files to be sent back

Meanwhile, the district administration has decided to send back files, which were not drafted in Telugu, to the respective departments. "The move is aimed at increasing the use of Telugu," district Collector M. Ravi Chandra said. "In the next three or four months, all official transactions in Nellore district would be in Telugu only. Therefore, the moment officials at the Collectorate find any file in English, they would put a stamp saying that it had been sent back since it was not drafted in Telugu," the Collector said.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Telugu gal crowned 'Miss Showbiz India USA'

By MICHEL W. POTTSSpecial to India-West

GLENDALE, Calif. - Out of a group of six finalists, 25-year-old విలాసిని చల్ల (Vilasini R. Challa) was crowned "Miss Showbiz India USA 2007" during its annual beauty pageant hosted by Pearl Entertainment July 8 at the Alex Theater here.

In addition to being named first runner-up, శిల్ప మామిడి (Shilpa Mamidi) won the title of Miss Beautiful Hair and Most Beautiful Smile. Anuja Shah, who bears a striking resemblance to actress Bebe Neuwirth, was the second runner-up.

The remaining three finalists were Shamika Kaur, Shivani T. Shah and Fatana Zadran. In other categories, Anshita Dhawan won the title of Miss Photogenic while Swati Panchal, who performed a hilarious skit on the way Gujaratis and Punjabis would recite the "Jack and Jill" nursery rhyme, was selected by the judges for Miss Best Eyes.

As the winner of the pageant, Challa received $1500 in cash, a round trip ticket to India, an evening gown by Scala, a proclamation from the City of Los Angeles, a $500 scholarship to the John Robert Powers modeling agency as well as a Bollywood screen test by filmmaker Vikram Bhatt.

Not only will Challa represent the state of California in the upcoming Miss India USA beauty pageant but she will also represent India in the Miss Asia USA beauty pageant and will represent the city of Mumbai on the sister city float in the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade.

Among other prizes she received as the first runner-up, Mamidi was presented with a $1000 cash award and a $500 scholarship to the John Robert Powers modeling agency, which Shah also received along with a $500 cash prize. A similar scholarship went to Dhawan for being named Miss Photogenic.

An accountant who went to work for a small firm in Woodland Hills after graduating from Cal State Northridge with a degree in finance, Challa has plans to continue her education to earn a master's degree in business administration.

The title of Miss Showbiz India 2007 "will expose me to a lot of people whom I probably would have never met in my little accounting world," she confided to India-West. "So I think it will be a great way for me to develop my business skills as well as my personality and my public speaking skills."

For the talent segment, Challa used the music from the film Waqt. "I've been in love with the music ever since I first heard it, and so tonight was a perfect opportunity for me to choreograph it," she said.

As for her trip to India, having won a free ticket, "I'm really looking forward to going to Mumbai," admitted Challa, who is originally from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, "but I'm really looking forward to seeing my family, if I can, because my grandparents are getting really old. And I'm looking forward to exploring India."

At the after-event party at the Chakra restaurant in Beverly Hills, India-West caught up with three of the judges and asked them what had impressed them the most about Challa that made her stand out from the other 15 semi-finalists.

"She was the most consistent of all the girls," Atkins said. "Miss Showbiz India is all encompassing, it's not just a beauty pageant, and she just seemed to have it more than the others. I was actually very pleased that she was the winner."

Chiba claimed Challa was his choice from the very beginning. "She was outright better in all the categories than anyone else who was there," he said. "She was far more personal than anyone else, and that's what clinched it for me."

Bhave said Challa's dance performance, a fusion of Indian classical and modern dance, during the talent segment had impressed her the most. "She was a little different than the others, even in her photographs, and she was confident," she said.

The pageant was billed as an evening of "glitter, glamour and grace" by Pearl Entertainment founder Reshma Dordi, who co-hosted the show with actress Pooja Batra. But this pageant was unlike others in the Indian American community.

By having the event in a conventional theater, that also had balcony seating for the audience, the pageant dispensed with the usual catwalk, which considerably shortened the walk of each semi-finalist as she paraded in front of the judges seated in the orchestra pit.

There were three segments -- the formal wear, regional wear and talent. Unlike other beauty pageants in the past, where the contestants often took considerable time to change between segments and events had to be staged to fill in the time, the Miss Showbiz segments were presented back to back.

In the past, beauty pageants have taken between six to eight hours before the winner is crowned, which happened to Dordi when she was the first crowned "Miss LA India." As a result of her new strategy, the entire Miss Showbiz India pageant lasted slightly less than three hours, from the opening number to the crowning.

"I worked really hard to make it fast-paced and concise," Dordi later told India-West. "We've been training the girls since May...it was basically a combination of various facets that finally got us to a point where the pageant was fast-paced and not bore the audience."

While other pageants have used screens on opposite sides of the stage to give the audience a better view of the proceedings, the sole video camera was usually fixed in place at the rear of the auditorium.

Not only did Dordi have two cameramen on the floor who were able to shoot the pageant from various angles, but she also had incorporated a video camera mounted on a crane that gave stunning visuals from high and low angles.

Prior to the announcement of the six finalists, actress Amisha Patel took center stage as the guest of honor and cautioned the aspiring actresses among the contestants that the entertainment business is not all about glamour.

"In fact, it is a lot of pain, hard work, perseverance and discipline," she said.

At the conclusion of her brief speech, Patel was then called upon to present plaques of appreciation to Hamilton Brewart, who was a co-presenter of the pageant, as well as to more than a dozen sponsors, including Bhindi's Jewelers, which supplied the jewelry for Dordi and Batra.

While Patel was given the honor of crowning the winner, film producer Ashok Amritraj was the evening's chief guest who draped Challa, Shah and Mamidi with their winning sashes. Glendale Mayor Dave Weaver presented the sashes for Miss Photogenic, Miss Best Hair, Miss Best Smile and Miss Eyes.

The judges' scoring was tabulated by Anne Tahim, and the pageant included a fashion show billed as "M," a fashion fantasy by the Mehr Design Studios which included several past winners and runners-up from the Model Search and Miss Southern California India pageants that Dordi has produced in the past.

Karunya's melody in Indiana

Singing sensation Karunya made a drasting three hours long music performance in "Karunya 500" , evoking the cheer and excitement of nearly 500 Indian music lovers from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and other states.

The program, jointly organized by Greater Indianapolis Telugu Association (GITA) and India Association of Indianapolis (IAI), was held in Indianapolis on July 9, 2006. The program evinced non-stop applause from the audience while many of them sang along with Karunya or joined the dance.

The presidents of GITA and IAI, Mr. Raju Chinthala and Mr. Haresh Gangwani, respectively, introduced Karunya and facilitated the program. Karunya sang a total of 22 songs truly 22 memorable gems that will reside in the hearts of the participants. His songs included - 'Right here, Right now', 'Hum hai ek pal yahaan', 'Yaa Ali Raham wali' and the current melody 'Chaand sifaarish' from Fanaa, along with 4 Telugu songs including Ghantasala songs and a recent hit from the movie Pokiri.

During the last part of the program, Karunya gave a surprise entrance to the audience by joining a Telugu dance medley by Vinod Madhanu and Sandeep Pamireddy of Indianapolis and dancing with them to a tune from Pawan Kalyan's 'Bangaram' movie.

Karunya was felicitated by GITA and IAI by the presentation of a plaque, a shawl and was honored with the title of గాన కళ భూషణ (Gaana Kala Bhushana) with the backdrop of vedic chants by Dr. DHR Sharma. The program concluded by a vote of thanks by GITA president Mr. Raju Chinthala. The executive committee members of GITA, IAI and many volunteers and sponsors helped to make this program a grand success.

"The commission is hoping that the Centre will make an announcement with regard to this on August 15," he said. Mr. Prasad was here to attend a review meeting with district officials of Nellore, Guntur and Prakasam on the need to make the use of Telugu compulsory in transacting administrative work from district to mandal level.

Long overdue

Expressing concern over the delay in according the status, Mr. Prasad said that recognition was long overdue as Telugu was one of the Dravidian languages with a 2,000-year history. Material evidence such as script, coins, epigraphs and other related texts and recorded history more than 1,000 years old had already been submitted to the committee to present the case, he said.

Listing out the benefits that would accrue to Telugu as a result of according it the classical language status, Mr. Prasad said it would pave the way for recognition by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and consequent creation of chairs in several Indian universities for research on Telugu language and its art and culture.

Once the UGC gives its recognition, other universities will also accept it across the globe. Subsequently, funds would also pour in for the development of Telugu in several spheres. Research in Telugu would throw new light on historical and cultural traditions, he added.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Stress on use of Telugu in government offices

Kakinada: Chairman of the Official Language Commission A.B.K. Prasad has said that Telugu should get its due recognition as one of the oldest languages and every effort is being made to increase its importance in the Government offices.

Inaugurating the two-day seminar on `Changing trends in Telugu literature-introduction of new techniques in Telugu teaching' at Ideal College campus here on Saturday, he said globalisation had contributed to the increased influence of English and reducing the importance of Telugu. He wanted that those who studied Telugu should also get equal opportunities on the lines of those educated in English.

Claim disputed

Mr. Prasad described the G.O. issued by the Tamil Nadu Government claiming Tamil being the oldest language known in the world, baseless. He said action was being taken to implement Telugu in all the Government offices and in courts.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Balamuralikrishna honoured

మంగలంపల్లి బాలమురలికృష్ణ (Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna) has again been awarded an honorary doctorate.. This time it is from Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan

Visva-Bharati University conferred on the maestro D. Litt and the title దేశికోత్తమ (Desikottama), the highest honour of this institution.

Balamuraliji is on a concert tour in the U.S. and therefore was not present at the convocation ceremony.

When asked what the latest honour meant to him, he says that recognition from the university founded by the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore is indeed unique. The latest honour comes at a time when Balamuralikrishna's recordings of Rabindra Sangeet have been received with acclaim.

The six other academic institutions that have conferred an honorary doctorate on this doyen of classical music are the Andhra, Hyderabad, Srivenkateswara, Madras, Rabindra and Jawaharlal Nehru Technical universities.

Dhorasoo's help sought to popularise football among Indo-Trinidadians

Port-of-Spain, July 7 (IANS) France's Indian origin footballer Vikash Dhorasoo's help is being sought to inspire Trinidadian youth of Indian extraction to take to the sport.

The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) of Trinidad and Tobago has sent an invitation to Dhorasoo, who is playing for France in the football World Cup finals in Germany, through a FIFA official, reports here said.

SDMS is a nonprofit charitable organization catering to the educational, cultural, social and religious needs of the population in general and Hindus in particular in this Caribbean nation.

The SDMS move comes after the rousing performance of the Trinidad and Tobago team in their World Cup finals debut in Germany this year. The team, dubbed the 'Soca Warriors', held much higher ranked Sweden to a goalless draw, and lost to England and Paraguay by identical 0-2 margins.

The team, which does not have any Indo-Trinidadian in its ranks, has become the toast of the nation after its performance.

Indo-Trinidadians comprise 40 percent of the country's population of around one million. They are descendants of Indians who had come to this Caribbean nation in the 19th and early 20th centuries to work as indentured labour in sugarcane plantations.

According to a report in the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper, FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has contacted Dhorasoo in connection with the SDMS invitation.

The report quoted SDMS secretary-general Sat Maharaj as saying that his organisation would introduce football in all its schools. SDMS runs 43 primary schools and two secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago.

Maharaj said that the recent performance of the Soca Warriors in Germany had impacted on the most conservative groups.

The report quoted him as saying that SDMS decided to invite Dhorasoo because Indo-Trinidadian parents, especially mothers, dissuade their sons from taking part in contact sports like football.

"Young Indian boys are more inclined to play cricket, table tennis, badminton and even lawn tennis where the facilities are available to display individual skills," he told the newspaper.

Though Indo-Trinidadian cricketers like Sonny Ramadhin have shone on the world stage, footballers are hard to come by.

Dhorasoo, who was born to Indian parents in Mauritius, grew up at Le Havre in Normandy, France. He played for Le Havre, Lyon, Bordeaux, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain in various tournaments in France.

He won the French League title with Olympique Lyonnais twice - in 2002 and 2004.

In the 2003-04 season, Dhorasoo was named Best Player of Ligue 1 in France. He then shifted to AC Milan, from where he took a transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.

He made history on June 13 when he took the field for France against Switzerland in a Group G match, becoming the first player of Indian descent to play in the World Cup finals.

Now, the SDMS, through its invitation, has decided to cash in on Dhorasoo's newfound popularity among Indians across the world.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

'The Code' in Telugu now

Sony Pictures does not confirm release, as film has been sold to distributor

HYDERABAD: A few quiet days after protesters forced Prasad's IMAX to pull `The Da Vinci Code' off the screen, the movie and its baggage of controversy are back.

With the local distributor of the movie, Laxmi Ganapathi Pictures reportedly announcing that it would release the Telugu version on July 7 with police security in about 40 theatres across the State, Christian groups have once again raised their flags of dissent.

Guarded reaction

Sony Pictures, which released the film's original version English, however, was guarded in its reaction. Its spokesperson from Mumbai said they were not in a position to confirm the release as they had sold the rights to the local distributor.

On Sunday, the youth wing of the National Congress of Indian Christians (NCIC) questioned the Government's delay in filing an appeal in a higher court after the Andhra Pradesh High Court had earlier given the nod for the movie's screening in the State.

Group's demand

In a statement, the outfit's president C.A. Daniel Adams said the Government had gone on record on June 24 saying that it was "committed to ban the film" and that it would go for an appeal. However, authorities have remained silent after that, Mr. Adams alleged. He demanded steps to prevent the film from being screened, especially after the local distributor had even announced the date.

All India Christian Joint Action Committee has decided to stage dharnas and take out protest rallies if distributors continued to screen `The Da Vinci Code' at Imax.

The Joint Action Committee in a release said that Christians had already expressed their reservations against screening of the film.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

రేమల రావు (Rao Remala) : Microsoft's First Indian Hire

By:

Priyanka Joshi

Rao Remala, the first Indian hire at Microsoft, is a man used to hard work and in the last two years world travel.

Born in a tiny coastal village in Andhra Pradesh, where he tread six miles to school everyday, he now lives in the trendy Yarrow Point suburb of Seattle in a palatial house, artfully decorated with sandalwood idols of Hindu gods. Remala's claim to fame comes from writing the original code for Microsoft Windows. Over a two decades long career at Microsoft, Remala worked on Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, MS Cobol, OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), MS Office 95 and MS Office 97, culminating with director for R&D and Outsourcing.

When Remala joined Microsoft in 1981 it was a fry cry from today's Microsoft, which lures the best and brightest seeking work at the most reputed company in the world with compensation and benefit packages among the most generous in the industry. The Microsoft Remala came to was a little known company with a handful of employees, functioning out of a tiny office in downtown Bellevue. He had been recruited by the company from Hindustan Computers Ltd, which developed India's first microcomputer in 1978.

Recalls Remala: "The first day itself, someone walks into my office and explains to me the project I will be working on. He must have introduced himself, but I didn't recall his name and I had to ask him, who are you and he said, ‘I am Bill.'"

Remala reported directly to Bill Gates for three years and, like any start-up, he recalls Microsoft as a very informal place with frequent face to face encounters with Gates. "He was like anyone else, you would walk up to him, talk to him, challenge him. It was a very different world those days." Remala says, "As a person, he really liked technical people, who are competent and who work hard and are trying and I happened to be one of them." Gates did not display even the faintest streak of arrogance, says Remala, adding that he was "very nice, cordial, in his interactions and communications."

At the time, several Indians in the area worked at Boeing. Reminisces Remala: "Interesting thing is that people would ask me, who do you work for at Indian social gatherings and I would tell them Microsoft. They would ask me, couldn't you get jobs at some of the hot companies, what kind of benefits do you have?"

Indeed, acknowledges Remala, at the time he himself only expected to work for a couple of years at Microsoft before moving on to the hot computer company of the era, IBM. "To be honest, we never thought we were on to something big. We did not have this great vision that they would be building a great company 20 years from now." The company was so small, recalls Remala, that there was little planning in software development. "Wednesday morning we would start changing the code. It wasn't like you developed a thick manual and then have a development team start working."

But the passion of the work kept Remala with Microsoft ultimately for 23 years.

When he was offered stock options by Gates in 1982, recalls Remala, "I was actually upset, because they weren't paying me enough." Gates was reviewing employees at the time and told Remala that the company was so pleased with his performance that it was raising his salary by 10 percent and giving him stock options. "I complained to him that I didn't want the options, just a higher salary," he says, miffed that as a foreign recruit with an annual salary of $22,000 he was not paid at par with other employees.

In the early years, stock options were computed from the salary. "How they came up with the number was that if you were making $25,000 salary, you got 2,500 shares; if you made $30,000 shares, you got 3,000. The formula was, in fact Bill said it, that in 4 to 5 years the company would go public and the shares would be worth $10 each, which would be equivalent to one year's salary."

Lucky for Remala, he didn't pass up the stock options that were ultimately worth millions.

The path to those millions was tough. The work hours were grueling and on some days Remala never went home. He only had a half day off when his youngest daughter was born in Seattle. Now, he says jokingly, Microsoft employees get three months family leave. "One of the managers commented once that you Indians are very lucky that your wives don't complain."

The Indian presence at Microsoft, Remala says, did not begin to be really felt till the late 1980s. Before 1987 fewer than 10 Indians worked at the company and at that time it was common for them to know everyone and even meet regularly.

Remala retired from Microsoft in 2004. "I had difficulty making the decision to leave. That was tough because all your life all you did was basically you went to school, then college and a job to work, work, work. You have these nightmares that once I leave what will happen? But I never felt that after I left."

He says the changes at the company as it grew, with its layers of management did not leave him quite as enthusiastic and passionate about his work as he had been in his earlier years. "We were used to a certain style of working at Microsoft and when things changed it would sometimes be frustrating," he says.

Unlike many of his contemporaries who established their own start-ups, Remala was never tempted. "For these entrepreneurs you really need passion, that's what makes it happen. You need to put in a lot of time. I put in long hours ay HCL, then Microsoft. The first few years are going to be really challenging. I had to ask myself, do I really want to go through that again?"

Now retired, he travels the world and funds a few charitable projects, including a foundation, named after himself, which is building an eye hospital in his village in Andhra Pradesh. He has dabbled as an investor in a few start-ups, but his first priority, he says, is enjoying life and "taking care of myself."

That takes him back to his roots and childhood habit of walking six miles to school; he and his wife Kumari can be frequently spotted on long hikes. But the neighborhood is different, dramatically different.

Book Review: The Man on the Road

True to the original

W. CHANDRAKANTH

Despite pitfalls, the book retains the authenticity of the language.

That Man On The Road: Contemporary Telugu Short Stories; edited by Ranga Rao, Penguin, Rs. 250.

TRANSLATIONS from other languages into English could convey the original style by adopting the equivalents of the syntax in English or even be free adaptations that retain the original spirit dispensing with the original style and idiom.

There is the third kind as J.A. Cuddon says: "A more or less literally exact rendering of the original meaning at the expense of the syntax, grammer, colloquialism and idiom of the language into which it is put" on the lines of Lang, Leaf and Myerss' famous translation of Iliad. That Man On The Road, an anthology of contemporary Telugu short fiction edited by Ranga Rao and published by Penguin Books, falls under the this category.

Translation is difficult or even perilous if one does not understand the native idiom and syntax. The 18 stories chosen for this edition are, as Ranga Rao explains, "a one man choice". Amarendra Dasari, Jayashree Mohan, C.L.L. Jayaprada, D. Kesava Rao and Vadrewu Vijayalakshmi (along with Ranga Rao) have done five of these stories. The original stories were penned by some of the most renowned and prolific storywriters whose contribution to Telugu story was remarkable.

Various influences

Telugu literature itself has come under the influence of a variety of literatures. As reputed scholar, late Kothapalli Veerabhadra Rao, observed "if a literature adapts or adopts what is new and wholesome in other literatures when they are in contact, it is not a matter for shame." These influences should also be kept in mind in translating Telugu works. Stories selected for the compilation here range in thematic content highlighting human failures, systemic disorders, issues like feminism and exploitation.

Boya Jangayya's దొంగలు (Dongalu) ("Thieves") is a telling commentary on the travails of Beerappa. His futile attempts at securing a loan to buy sheep are rendered as crisply as in the original by Ranga Rao. "That Man On The Road" is one of Madhurantakam Rajaram's gems that exposes the false concern of the rich for the poor. Ensconced in comforts, Narasappa garu grapples with the problems faced by Ranganna but his intent is never translated into action. Alas, he does not step out of the car to greet his "childhood hero". The beautiful narrative skill is not lost in the translation. "Mango Tree" makes it a compelling reading because of its intense narration.

The hallmark of Telugu story, contemporariness, becomes evident to the non-Telugu readers in these stories. The human failures and their idiosyncrasies retain the poignancy that marks the original. As the "Afterword" in the end points out bilingualism and bi-culturalism make translation creative and challenging. A translator has a tough job on hand — that of weighing how much of an exposure that the reader should get to the ethos of the people being written about.

Pitfalls, as Jayaprada says referring to "Cattle Thief", abound in sustaining the authenticity of the original in translation. "Englishisation of Telugu" is not an easy job. The attempt here strives to be nearer to perfection. Caution: Being literally literal could look awkward to a non-native at times. But, the book is self-explanatory. Footnotes and Afterword are good enough to cover the missing ends.